Borrowdale House

Overview

Sometimes you need more time to recover before returning home after a stay in hospital. We can support your recovery through a reablement scheme at Borrowdale House.

Borrowdale House is a reablement service provided by a joint team from South Tyneside Council and the NHS for residents of South Tyneside aged 18 and over.

Support available

There are 24 apartments for reablement and 10 permanent extra care flats. You will stay in your own apartment designed to support your recovery. This encourages independence in a home environment while keeping your privacy.

Borrowdale House has a skilled team to help your recovery using both therapy and reablement staff.

The Borrowdale Team includes:

Occupational Therapists
Physiotherapists
Reablement Support Workers
General Practitioner
Social Workers

Reablement Support Workers are on site 24/7 should you need more support.

What reablement is

Reablement helps people regain their independence following a stay in hospital or period of illness and is designed around individual needs.

It is a free Adult Social Care service and is provided for a short period of time, usually up to 6 weeks but sometimes less depending on individual needs.

The service will work with you to help you do things for yourself, rather than do things for you. It will focus on your strengths and abilities and help you to rebuild your confidence to increase your independence.

This includes:

getting up
getting washed and dressed
preparing meals
doing household tasks like shopping and laundry
getting involved in social and leisure activities
medications

Who can access the service

You may be able to access the Borrowdale House reablement service if:

you are aged 18 and over
you live in the South Tyneside area
you live or would be able to live at home with some support
you would benefit from reablement and would be able to regain some of your independence

Reablement will only be provided to you with your consent. For the process to be successful, you must be open to developing your independence and take part in therapies and exercise to reach your goals as identified with you in your reablement plan.

How to access the service

Once you have been identified as benefitting from reablement and you have had a discussion with the therapist about your needs, a therapy plan will be completed and sent to Borrowdale House for consideration.

During this time, yourself and your support network will be able to schedule a visit to see Borrowdale House. If this cannot happen, you can see a video showing you around the service. If you are accepted to the reablement service, arrangements will be made for you to move into your apartment.

If you are not accepted, other options will be discussed with you.

Cost

Reablement is free of charge for up to six weeks and you will not need an assessment of your finances.

This will be discussed with you and your support network.

If you already receive support in the community

If you are already receiving support in the community such as care, your care provider will be contacted and informed of your stay at Borrowdale House.

The aim of reablement is to support you to develop or regain skills and confidence to do things for yourself. This means that your needs may change after your stay with us. Your needs will be assessed during your stay and the team will work closely with your care provider to make sure your needs are met when you go home.

If you have any concerns about your support and the assessment process, please let us know.

Borrowdale House encourages you to maintain any preplanned appointments you may have related to your ongoing care and support. The team will support you to make arrangements to attend.

What you need to take

As Borrowdale House is designed to mirror your home environment, each apartment has standard household items and equipment.

There a few things that you will need to bring with you, including:

clothing and appropriate footwear
towels
toiletries
washing powder
food and drink
continence products (If required the team can make a continence referral)

If there is anything specific you would like to bring, please discuss this with the team.

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is promoted as a means of additional support and to manage emergency calls within the service.

An Assistive Technology Assessor will assess and support your individual needs.

Equipment may include:

a pendant alarm
a falls detector
an epilepsy sensor
an alcove digital tablet (for family contact)
medication prompt

If you already have assistive technology at home, you do not need to bring it with you as it will be provided at Borrowdale House.

Visiting

There are no set times for family and friends to visit so they can come when you want, for as long as you wish. Visitors are not permitted to stay overnight in the apartments.

You may take part in reablement activities when your visitors are with you. All visitors need to sign in and out using the visitors log. This is to support the team in the event of an emergency. Pets are not allowed to visit.

The parking is free but we ask that all visitors park in the designated car parking bays.

After completing your reablement

You will receive an ongoing period of assessment during your stay at Borrowdale House.

When you have completed your reablement, we hope you will have achieved the goals set out in your reablement plan.

You should be more independent and feel more confident in doing things for yourself. While some people may find they do not need further help after their reablement, some may need further support.

You, your support network and the professionals at Borrowdale House will complete an assessment together and a plan will be agreed so that you have the best support when you return home.

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